The mic drop is particularly strong coming off a Comic-Con where Snyder’s Batman v. Superman teaser blew away the competition and Marvel’s presence uncharacteristically floundered. WB is staking strong claim to the next six years in the blockbuster biz even before it can prove it can make a new-generation hit. Consider it a reclaiming of the comic book movie crown WB once won when it changed the superhero game with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. WB and DC now finally are taking back the momentum they lost when Marvel and upstart exec Kevin Feige seized control with 2008’s Iron Man; that reign that’s steadily continued for six years, all the way through last week’s monster opening for the once-obscure and now-beloved Guardians Of The Galaxy franchise. Now fans have nine new unnamed DC films to speculate about. So what could be up WB’s sleeve?

After winning the coveted Wonder Woman gig, Gal Gadot (Fast & Furious 6) stood side by side with the boys, Henry Cavill (Superman) and Ben Affleck (Batman), onstage at Comic-Con last month, where the first peek at her in costume garnered huge attention. Look for a stand-alone Wonder Woman pic and possibly an Aquaman film to join WB’s future rollout, as both are expected in WB’s Justice League movie penned by Argo‘s Chris Terrio. That’s in addition to a stand-alone Batfleck and another Cavill Superman pic that could appear in the pipeline. Earlier this year WB set Jack Thorne to script a Sandman movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt aboard as producer and possible star. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been teasing for eight months that he’d be starring in a DC Comics movie thought to be Shazam, while movies based on Fables and Metal Men have also been bandied about.

But don’t forget the long and drawn-out legal battle WB waged and won against the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. WB emerged victorious in April as a U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of the studio’s rights claim to the Superman character right before it rebooted Superman with Man Of Steel. In the interim, WB diversified its DC Comics portfolio, launching DC heroes Green Arrow and The Flash as small-screen superheroes via their TV arm — something Marvel can’t do with its superhero franchise rights divided among Disney, Fox, and Sony. WB TV also will debut the anticipated Batman prequel series Gothamthis fall, further strengthening its comic book brand. And there’s also Superboy. WB emerged from court last year with the rights to the character, opening up more potential to explore a young Superman onscreen.

It all means open runway ahead for WB — but also spandex fatigue for audiences. Between Marvel and DC’s turf war, Sony’s recent Spidey jockeying, and Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot and X-Men pics, moviegoers are set to be smothered in 30 tentpole comic book movies in the next six years with nine of those titles landing in 2017. (And that’s not even including WB’s Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, slated for November 16, 2018, and another untitled non-DC Event Film reserving the November 20, 2020, slot.) Marvel’s Doctor Strange likely is gearing up for a spring 2015 shoot and could take the July 8, 2016, slot as TBA properties and Avengers and Guardians sequels, including a very possible Black Widow stand-alone, might end up filling in the gaps.

42 Comments

2017 is going to be a very interesting year for comic book movies. I’m very curious to see the over-saturation hypothesis tested.

Tbone • on Aug 6, 2014 7:53 pm

unless Chris Nolan is involved…please no more corny-campy comic garbage.

• on Aug 7, 2014 12:08 pm

So you prefer corny campy comic garbage as long as Nolan is involved?

Herb Finn • on Aug 6, 2014 11:06 pm

People forget the backlash when the market was flood with Spy-Genre films in the mid 1960’s after James Bond.

John Whorfin • on Aug 6, 2014 7:40 pm

I love ya Jen, but you’re giving Warners waaaaaaaaaaaay too much credit here. They blinked in a high-stakes game of release date chicken, period. And it’s hardly “open runway ahead” for a studio that makes crappy superhero movies like Green Lantern when Nolan’s not involved. I’m not holding my breath for a standalone Wonder Xena or any of the rest of their superhero vaporware to be creatively or commercially successful.

Charles Edwards • on Aug 6, 2014 8:18 pm

Completely agree. I love reading your articles, Jen, but Warners/DC has A LOT of catching up to do. And if they continue with the dark and gritty tone they’ve established in their Batman and Superman films, I don’t think they’ll ever catch up with Marvel.

lifeboatpres • on Aug 6, 2014 9:22 pm

“They blinked in a high-stakes game of release date chicken, period.”

I like their moving their release date away from the crowded summer. As James Cameron demonstrated with Avatar and Titanic and Marvel showed this year with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, you can make even more money by avoiding when the market is saturated.

Note that I am not predicting that Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice will be a great film but I like their release date more than Marvel’s release date for Captain America 3.

Sean • on Aug 6, 2014 7:58 pm

Maybe we should hold back on the praise for DC until they prove they can make eight consecutive blockbusters, including the 3rd and 6th highest grossing films of all time. Maybe try to make more than one movie without Batman (as much as I love Batman) that’s actually good.

Gboy • on Aug 6, 2014 8:01 pm

Ok I’ll be captain obvious today

Some of these movies will flat out flop

Xim Lun • on Aug 7, 2014 8:20 am

Not the Marvel Studios films at least. yeah many of the others will flop but some won’t. X-Men: Apocalypse probably won’t and BvS will have the sheer novelty of it push it to be successful at least on some level.

Anonymous • on Aug 6, 2014 8:17 pm

It’s odd that you say Marvel’s SDCC presentation “floundered” when the headline of the link is “‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’ Footage Draws Standing Ovation”

C • on Aug 6, 2014 8:18 pm

You keep saying DC blew Marvel away at Comic Con like it’s fact while I don’t think that’s necessarily true. The “Batman v. Superman” teaser and the Wonder Woman pic did get a lot of buzz, but so did the “Avengers: Age of Ultron” scenes.

And considering how dicey “Batman v. Superman” sounds (a sorta-sequel to “Man of Steel”, a sorta set-up to “Justice League), I think WB should focus on making it as good as possible instead of rushing to plan a wave of films for years to come.

kevin C • on Aug 29, 2014 9:01 am

Ummm actually dc was more talked about online at comic con than marvel by double..surprising but can we possibly see dc suceeding for once?.. could it beat captain america 3?? I think so..2 superhero legends and finally a worthy female superhero…black widow isnt a superhero guys..not even elektra ir anyone else in marvel…dcs strategy is smart..wanna know wat it is??? Diversity!!

er, last time I looked, Netflix isn’t TV, it’s a glorifed hybrid of TV and Direct-to-Video.

Russ • on Aug 7, 2014 6:19 am

Agent Carter, like Agents of SHIELD, is on ABC, not Netflix, and there’s no criticizing that network’s viability compared to The CW. That said, Warners is obviously “winning” the TV battle if people want to continue to insist on making it a competition — if only because they can diversify their approach and their outlets more since not everything is done in lockstep with the films.

nerdrage • on Aug 7, 2014 9:09 am

The next time you look, Netflix will be TV. Broadcast is history, cable is getting there. Streaming meets the literal definition of “tele-vision.”

Patrick • on Aug 7, 2014 7:43 am

But, DC isn’t exactly making tons of bank with these shows. Smallville, Arrow, and probably Flash are all mediocre hits on the CW, a Micro-net. I love Smallville and Arrow, and I am looking forward to Flash. But they aren’t huge hits. And they are expensive moderate successes. Which don’t seem to have a huge demand in the international market or in Syndication. So, they aren’t going to make huge amounts of money.

I think WB is hoping to fold in these TV characters in a few years when they make a JLA movie. But, who knows.

Point being, it is hard to make these Comic properties into TV hits. The fan base’s expectations WRT production values and FX make it hard to produce a profitable TV franchise. Successful, yes. Highly profitable, no. The last really successful live action Comic show was probably Batman from the 60s. Marvel is probably wise to avoid making live action shows. It is hard to do them right and still make money.

kevin C • on Aug 29, 2014 9:08 am

Hahahhahaha duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude flash and arrow are already hits and flash hasnt even started yett!!!!!!! Agents of shield sucked for marvel..it blowed…..dc has advantages in TV and everything else…prob not movies..but thts when marvel comes in for movies…weird how they balance each other sorta….and marvel has money cuz of Disney being rich as F…so thts why Marvel makes alot of shit and gets away with it..cuz of mickey mouse..haha DC is gonna hav its chance..its gonna be the new marvel watch!

babyjesus69 • on Aug 6, 2014 8:33 pm

Yeah. I was in hall H this year at Comic Con. I would say that’s pretty irresponsible reporting if you say Marvel’s panel floundered. Avengers 2 trailer got a standing ovation from most of the crowd. And when Brolin came out with the Thanos glove the crowd was just as loud as when the batman superman trailer appeared. If anything WB’s presentation was a little underwhelming outside of the trailer since they didn’t let Affleck, Cavil or Gadot speak.

Jeffmc2000 • on Aug 6, 2014 10:53 pm

Yeah, the Batman/Superman teaser got more twitter and online attention because it leaked.

kevin C • on Aug 29, 2014 9:03 am

Thanos sucked btw…in gaurdians of the galaxy…srry marvel fans…

Dave • on Aug 6, 2014 8:53 pm

Umm… what?

DC’s “bold” strategy has already been demonstrated by Marvel releasing Thor 2 in November and Cap 2 in April. Their future movie releases all avoid Marvel’s established dates like the plague (with the exception of one weekend trailing one of Marvels in November 2017). There is no indication that DC “beat” Marvel at Comic-Con other than social media hits, even the articles you link to say the best DC offered was extra tv’s and some photos while Avengers footage drew a standing ovation and the cast actually engaged their fans.

Eternal Marvel vs. DC quarrel aside, let’s call this what it is: the wild success of Guardians of the Galaxy scared the pants off of WB so they’re running, and they’re using a bunch of empty dates to mitigate the negative perception. It’s a good strategy, but they’re still the ones backing down and rightfully so — Marvel had claimed the date long before BvS was delayed to add their league of cameos. If they want to release two DC movies a year, letting their three-year single endeavor take a massive financial hit would be a poor start.

Ben the idiot • on Aug 6, 2014 9:12 pm

let’s all pray to the god of Hollywood that the audience will lose interest in those stupid noisy movies and they all bomb!

The 2.5th Doctor • on Aug 6, 2014 9:17 pm

9 in 2017. This is too many.

genius jones • on Aug 7, 2014 12:38 am

No, the date change was definitely WB turning tail. This was the second time they changed the release date of Bats v. Supes. The first time was the delay when they voluntarily decided to play a game of chicken with Marvel by moving to a weekend Marvel had already claimed for a then unnamed movie (that we now know to be Cap 3). Fortunately for WB, Marvel changed the blockbuster landscape a little with Cap 2 by proving that a pre-May release can make for a mighty successful superhero movie.

It was the right call for them to make though. Hopefully it is a good movie that does well.

As for TV, WB has one show already on the air and three more coming based on DC Comics characters. Marvel has one already on the air and five more coming based on Marvel Comics characters. So I’m not sure what you are talking about there.

Bob the builder • on Aug 7, 2014 12:57 am

Sadly, I’m afraid the comic book/superhero genre could oversaturate the market and burn itself out. Despite a loyal fan base, mass audience appeal is a fickle thing. Musicals and westerns cycle through periods of popularity. Too much “spandex” could result in audience numbers flattening out and decreasing.

A smart studio head would be a bit more judicious in pumping this well to ensure long-term success. Did I just say “smart studio head”? Never mind!

thestrongestonethereis • on Aug 7, 2014 1:01 am

….Not really sure how you can paint this as a big bold move for WB/DC while trying to imply that Marvel has dropped the ball – a week after Marvel opened a film about a property that is obscure even to most comic book geeks to close to $100 mill.

WB got a lot of twitter chatter because they allowed 20 seconds of footage to leak & get people talking while Cavill/Affleck/Gadot farcically stood onstage for less than a minute, forbidden from opening their mouths and looking for all the world like they could barely stand to be in one anothers presence….Not a great look.

OTOH Marvel’s panel seemed to be very well received from those who were actually there & they were secure enough to screen the footage once & not try to generate a bunch of hashtags on social media. However as soon as that report came out that showed there was more twitter chat about BvS lazy journalists jumped on the line that WB “won” SDCC.

First step for WB – make a decent movie about one of your DC properties post-Nolan. Then we can begin the conversation.

Sequel Man • on Aug 7, 2014 1:25 am

♫♫ Sequel-Man, Sequel-Man, does whatever a sequel can,

Spins a budget, any size, studio execs, love his lies, ♫♫

Hey there, here comes the Sequel Man, yeah, yeah, yeah.

In the dark of night, at the scene of the crime, ♫♫

Like a streak of light, he arrives just in time! ♫♫

Sequel-Man, Sequel-Man, lots more sequels, that’s his plan.

Take a look, over head, original films, they are dead! ♫♫

Hey there, here comes the Sequel Man, yeah, yeah, yeah! ♫♫

slb • on Aug 7, 2014 8:46 am

+1

zryson • on Aug 7, 2014 2:12 am

I think there is a real danger of spandex fatigue occurring, but then the studios are so desperate for new franchises that they just are rushing ahead hoping to strike while the iron is hot.

DC movies have far more to prove, Marvel is a known strong entity making fun family comic book movies appealing to virtually all demographics. I personally would love for a grittier and more ‘real’ superhero flick but DC needs to appoint a head honcho first and foremost to ensure quality and canon throughout the DC universe.

From the looks of things they’ve jumped in too fast and far too late. By spreading themselves this thin it’s almost guaranteed that there will be a couple of mega budget flops in this mix and it will be interesting to see if the high ups knock out of the base of the house of cards if and when that does happen.

PGS • on Aug 7, 2014 5:24 am

After the success of Guardians of the Galaxy, a number of observers started calling Marvel the new Pixar (referring to that studio’s most critically acclaimed and successful period from last decade when the brand-name meant anything they made brought audiences out in droves). That comment is apt as Pixar’s success brought out a flood of imitators that really haven’t left to this day. The result continues to be tons of animated features with an enormous variety of quality and success, but with Pixar still reigning supreme (more or less). Marvel is firing on all cylinders right now and I expect them to experience something similar to Pixar for many years to come. We will get lots of comic book movies (although I doubt all of these will get made, for example I doubt we will see more than one Fantastic Four film and Sony will not make all of these Spideyverse movies) some of which will break box office records and others will flop. As for audience fatigue, has that set in with the Pixar knock-offs yet? No. It won’t for Marvel’s either and Marvel will be on top still in 2020 (at least as far as audiences are concerned even if the critics at some point start to experience fatigue).

DougW • on Aug 7, 2014 5:59 am

Why won’t you just admit that WB, after throwing down the gauntlet and scheduling Batman v Superman versus Captain America 3, ran away from the competition? No one else seems to have a problem saying it.
Also, it’s easy for a studio to pick dates for non-existent films. Let’s see some of them before we start comparing them to Marvel’s successes.

dman6015 • on Aug 7, 2014 6:49 am

I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely looking forward to the Untitled Marvel and Untitled DC movies. Lots of sequels listed for them. Hope they don’t burn out the franchise.

Michael • on Aug 7, 2014 8:06 am

Serious overkill. The only thing that’s going to happen is you saturate the market with a single genre and the bottom drops out leaving you with a large number of $100m+ films that you won’t even be able to send straight to video. Sure, there are a handful of Marvel films that make bank now, but when you start seeing the same characters several times a year, you’re going to get tired of them. And outside of the most recent Batman trilogy, when was the last time a DC property made any money? Christopher Reeves Superman era in the late 70’s early 80’s. Spending a lot of money on films with only the profit of a Marvel flick as a dream.

Mort Guffman • on Aug 7, 2014 9:24 am

I don’t think it’s limited just to the super-hero genre – Disney’s plan is to drop in “Star Wars” spinoffs during the off-years of the main franchise. Personally, I think there’s a great danger of diluting the genre. People are going to be sick of this in the next five to ten years. Then you have to worry about the quality declining. Love the Marvel films, but “Iron Man” 2 & 3, as well as “Thor: The Dark World” were very disappointing. (Have not seen “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” yet, so I cannot speak to that.)

• on Aug 7, 2014 11:45 am

I want to see wolverine cut bstmans head off alrrady.on thr big screen.

JD22 • on Aug 7, 2014 12:25 pm

I like the direction of DC animated direct to DVD films and also what they’ve done to build up the DC universe with Arrow and now Flash on the CW.

But I really don’t have high expectations for the DC characters on film. There have been a lot of WB stinkers for DC characters. We have Green Lantern, also Joel Schumaker’s Batman and Robin, etc. The Man of Steel was disappointing, and you’re having the same creative people behind that film work on Batman v Superman, with Ben ‘Raindeer Games/DareDevil/Surviving Christmas’ Affleck as Batman. I think it is appropriate to mention those films, because that was really the last time he was in a name above the title, asked to carry a film. Afterwards he’s really just in roles that were low key supporting, sure he was the lead, but it was always ‘hey he’s not that much of a d-bag as he usual’. We’re supposed to eventually like him in this film and future films. I’m not optimistic about that. While the Justice League films will do fine, I see a few Green Lantern type flops in that DC slate of films.

• on Aug 7, 2014 12:46 pm

The Dumbing Down of America is alive and well for the majority of our population!!!